Learning Environment - Post 4

Creating a conducive learning environment that both the students and the teacher can agree upon can be rather difficult. However, I really appreciate the idea of rule establishment before the year ever really gets going. In class, we discussed how we can steer the rules in the direction we want, but by asking the class, we can get it in language they agree upon and understand. However, how would a teacher go about illustrating the rules? In Julie McLaughlin's portfolio, she observed one of her teaching mentors posting " classroom posters demanding respect and tolerance," which "set a  clear tone of what was expected from the students in terms of behavior." By doing so, the teacher was very clear in how the class will be conducted and if someone betrayed the rules, she could easily reference the agreed upon rules to make the infraction clear. It may even be a good idea to get students to sign the poster to make them agree in a less than passive manner.

http://sitemaker.umich.edu/mclaughlin_portfolio/creating_a_positive_classroom_environment

High School Case Study

You have started to dread your fifth period English class.  It is made up entirely of seniors who are counting the days until graduation and seem to care very little about learning.  Most of the students are obviously members of one clique or another.  Whenever they think your back is turned, they start passing notes and text messaging.  Worse, three boys have started disrupting those engaged in learning.  No matter what you say, they laugh at the students who focus on writing their essays, especially when they compose in the library's lab.  Yesterday, Tony, Jeff, and Morris started roughhousing then all three of them refused to sit down and follow the class procedures that the classroom community agreed upon at the beginning of the year. Although you have been using a set approach to handling infractions of rules, you decide it is time to change these procedures.

In this situation, by in large, motivation is the issue. I'd have to say most of these students have work-avoidance goals, as they engage in "off-task behavior" and they also likely "select the least taxing alternatives" (Omrod 383). The developmental theorist, who ascribes to behaviorism, B.F. Skinner, has many ideas regarding positive/negative reinforcement and punishment. To explain these, I will borrow the eloquently composed explanations, as I can't find myself doing much better for this blog.

·         "Positive Reinforcement: Give (+) what individuals like when they have performed the desired behavior (Griggs, 2009).

·         Negative Reinforcement: Remove (-) what individuals do not like when they have performed the desired behavior (Griggs, 2009)."

·         "Positive Punishment: Give (+) individuals what they do not like when they have performed the undesired behavior (Griggs, 2009). Positive punishment is what we think of when we think of a "punishment"

·         Negative Punishment: Remove (-) what individuals like when they have performed the undesired behavior (Griggs, 2009)."

To fix the student's behaviors, we could potentially offer rewards (positive reinforcement) and by doing so, they may have an incentive to perform better/ be on task. These will most likely be intrinsic, but be creative. Some restaurant chains (Pizza Hut being an example) gives out vouchers for a free pizza as a promotional tool for teachers to take advantage of and you could inform students of places that give rewards for good report cards.

For negative reinforcement, taking up phones seems to be the obvious answer. While you may only be able to take it up for the period (I suppose it depends on the school's rules), it's a place to start.

https://wikispaces.psu.edu/display/PSYCH484/3.+Reinforcement+Theory

By taking actions like the two I have listed above, hopefully some students will begin to improve their behavior. While it will certainly take time and more invention (rearranging seating comes to mind), with some extrinsic rewards and taking away a privilege (something they probably aren't allowed to have out anyway) the seniors may find some incentive to not disrupt the class.

The Onion - Too On Point!

Although we have just written our blogs for this past week, since most people discussed motivation exclusively, I feel like now is the most important time to share this, albeit it's a little on the late side.



I was going through my favorite Onion videos, and just re-spotted this one. I'll copy the text and video here, but feel free to go to the link at the bottom of my post. The video is about 1 minute long. It's an excellent satire about an inner-city student who can't motivate their teacher b/c of all of the teacher's issues. Enjoy!

"CHICAGO—A frustrated group of students at Dunne High School on Chicago’s South Side told reporters Thursday that they are running out of ideas to motivate their underperforming teachers, who they claim have apparently given up on education despite the pupils’ concerted efforts. “We’ve tried everything to reach out to our teachers in hopes of making a connection, but it’s just so hard to get through to them,” said 10th-grader Christopher Fenton, who confirmed that most of his instructors live in low-income households and lack the basic language skills to communicate effectively. “It’s difficult to walk in the classroom each morning and see them sitting listlessly at their desks, convinced that nothing they do at school matters. And, unfortunately, it creates a vicious cycle: They think they’re going nowhere, and so that’s how they behave.” While Fenton stated that the school’s inadequate facilities and out-of-date teaching materials were partly to blame for educators’ dismal performance, he also acknowledged the problem has been exacerbated by the perceptible substance abuse issues that afflict many of his teachers, a number of whom have already developed lifelong dependencies on drugs and alcohol."

Frustrated Inner-City Students Running Out Of Ideas To Motivate Teachers
http://www.theonion.com/articles/frustrated-innercity-students-running-out-of-ideas,31018/

"Most Teachers Don't Know How to Help Kids Learn how to Learn"

Instinctively, I have to say this quote is true from my own perspective as a new teacher. I certainly feel unprepared to not only control a classroom but also teach lessons, not that I'm supposed to feel ready at this point.

While perhaps easily dismissed, I would like to give an anecdotal example. My friend's brother began teaching in an inner-city school this semester. It is also his first year of teaching. Compared to his colleagues he seems to be much more successful in his job, even though he is newer to the profession and took an unrelated job for a couple years before coming to teaching. How could this be? It is my belief that perhaps he thinks about teaching strategies, or it could be superior training. Whatever the case, something special is in him that is allowing his students to develop.

To explain how some teachers, like my friend's brother, are more successful than others, I would like to look at an article entitled, "Beyond Knowledge: Exploring Why Some Teachers Are More Thoughtfully Adapted Than Others." In the most broad sense, this article really stresses that knowledge isn't enough. (This really reminds me of the very salient example given in class about the Calculus teacher that sat in his office and made the course an independent study essentially. He may be smart, but he isn't TEACHING anything.)

The first category discussed in depth is the "Teachers' Beliefs and Personal Practical Theories (PPT's)."

A belief, in its most broad sense, is accepting a statement as true. What you choose to do about this belief is up to the individual, but in the case of teachers, this can impact the classroom. However, are beliefs and knowledge the same? According to a 1992 study, it was "suggested that although teachers may conflate knowledge and beliefs, the distinction is that beliefs are more personal, whereas knowledge is based on objective facts" (Duffy 3). With that, I hope you understand that beliefs do not necessarily mean creationism being taught in schools, but simply a fact that may not have as much evidence as others, although it could be considered very professional e.g., theories, philosophical differences, &c.  With certain beliefs teachers bring to the classroom, some may "be more thoughtful than others" while some "may be more likely to resist [standardized curriculum] (3). However, was the teacher taught this in their teacher education program? Perhaps they were strict about paper-pencil assessment solely. This is where teacher freedom comes into play and their beliefs (and knowledge from teacher education courses) come into play with makes some teachers more successful than others.

The second category is simply named "Vision," which is "a teacher's personal commitment to seek outcomes beyond the usual curricular requirements" (4).  What I have taken the vision of a teacher to be is how a teacher can bring forth the best in their students, and inspire what ability they have to come out. But vision can also mean "ideal classroom practice" or the "purpose, direction, and momentum" of how a teacher will teach (4). Truly, these ideas are similar, but the importance of vision when it comes to the difference of teachers capabilities is that some will adapt to situations better than others.  For example, a teacher may think of their students as young adults, who need to be taught ethics, so she gears her lessons towards mortality; another teacher may view his students as critical thinkers and thus focus on critical thinking problems (4). Both of these teachers visions are good goals to strive for, and are teaching actual life skills, but not instilling strict knowledge in them.  I find this connects rather well to the beliefs distinction, as one teacher may find ethics for their students more important, but another critical thinking skills. Again, all are important, but they vary classroom formats drastically.

The third category is a sense of "belonging," where beliefs and visions are combined to form a sense of "a teaching context" (4-5). This teaching context is simply a feeling a teacher holds, it could be good, in where the teaching thinks their beliefs are worthy for teaching scenarios, or negative where they think they are not matching for teaching situations. As you may imagine, those who feel better when it comes to belonging perform better, and vice versa (5). A study in 2006 illustrates the importance of vision in teachers. In this study, "the teacher candidates who did not make connections between their personal visions of teaching and the context did not continue as teachers" (6). The teachers who quit were unhappy that there was not room in the schools for teacher development (typically). With that, this article postulates that in order to better prepare teachers, we should ready them for the possible "tension between their individual perspectives and educational contexts" in order for their visions to be truly realized in the classroom so creative ideas can be expounded upon (6).

The final category is "Identity," or simply "the influences that shape individuals across their lives and contexts," although these identities are "always in flux" (7). There are primarily two categories currently being studied for identity, one being "how White Privilege affects the...knowledge teachers construct about their students' abilities" and the other is based on teacher's abilities where "these studies explore how teachers...must negotiate the competing discourses of [the ]university... [world] that [affects] professional decisions" (7). This second view  is what we'll look at now. In order to shape better teachers, teachers must be willing to "respond to the myriad [of] forces that shape them" so they can create ways to respond to student's inquiries. (7). By this, I mean a teacher should surely use their identity learned in teacher education programs or from mentors, but at the same time they should take advantage of the best practices, but also not be inflexible if a considered "lesser practice" may work better for a student in a certain situation, whatever that may be.  

I truly found this article (and the debate itself) truly interesting. To find out more information, you can find the Duffy et. al article here: http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/B_Faircloth_Beyond_2010.pdf

If you have trouble with opening the document, I'd be happy to email you the PDF. I look forward to any responses I may receive.

Assessment - Post 2

Category 1           

Paper-pencil assessment - The most broad definition of a paper-pencil assessment is one that students must write with, well, a pencil and paper. I thought on this one for a while, to give a somewhat non-stereotypical answer, and I believe a daily (or close to it) journal would be appropriate. In the first few minutes a class, students would be required to free-write, in order to build up their writing abilities. I could read these entries and find ways to improve aspects of each student's writing, and see where they stand at any individual point. Within the context of lessons, I could specify a specific topic, rather than a freewrite, ask them what the students think about a particular character or the story itself. Truly, this type of assessment is versatile, and I would use it to gauge a student's understanding of writing conventions.

Performance Assessment - For the performance assessment, I would find allowing student's free reading time throughout the week (and mandate some time at home) to complete a book. After a specified amount of time, students would need to explain the book's plot and anything else they may find important to me individually or in front of the class. I find it hard to describe where it would fit in my lesson, as in a way, the assessment itself is the lesson. While I am not intimately familiar with Common Core standards, I do believe that this sort of assessment may fit within the window of it, at least if paired with other activities. I would use this assessment to check reading comprehension and assist with their public speaking abilities.

Category 2

Standardized Test - To implement standardized test results within my classroom, I would imagine using the results to create groups. In most assessments, they come with a base score, but sometimes they are organized according to proficiency in a particular area. Whatever the case may be, re-organizing seating or groups could prove to be beneficial. In addition, if one class section does better than another, perhaps I should go faster with my lesson plan with them than I initially planned. I can also adjust the speed if need be for the class that scored lower. I would use this assessment in order to make classroom interaction as equal as possible.

Teacher-developed assessment - With this type of assessment, the most obvious answer is to create paper-pencil assessment of some sort for use in the classroom. However, rather than a multiple choice test, students could be required to write a brief essay on a book we have been reading for class. I would use this assessment in order to test a student's understanding of the book as well as see their ability to follow the rules of writing.

Category 3

Criterion-referenced assessment - For a high school English class, the most obvious criterion reference to me seems to be a multiple choice, essay, and short answer mixup for a test. This type of assessment would require students to really know the material of a given book and not only know the basic plot, but also explain any themes I expect them to know or any sort of thing like that. Some of these questions may be harder than the others, but with the essay I could have key points I am looking for in order to ensure fair grading. I would use this assessment to test a student's knowledge of the material and also check their essay writing skills.

Norm-referenced assessment - Without making this a nationwide event, all of the English teachers in a particular grade at a school could develop a test on grammar rules and then let all of the students take that test. While the results won't be as broad as a true norm-referenced test, this seems to be fitting to compare students to each other within a single grade. I would use this assessment to see how my class has developed their grammar skills compared to other classes in the school.

Category 4

Traditional Assessment - While sort of contrived, I think a test of say, 20 items, featuring sentences with varying degrees of wrongness and some with some accuracy, would fit the formula of a traditional assessment. Each student would have to identify what is right/wrong in a sentence. I would use this assessment in order to determine how well students understand how sentences should be structured with regards to grammar rules.

Authentic Assessment - The most glowing example of this for me would be writing a future letter to yourself. This may work best for those students that are graduating (8th grade or 12th), but could be used for any level. Each student would have to format it like a real letter and then I could give it to them on the last day of class or organize to send it the in a year's time. I would use this type of assessment to integrate a real world activity that is slowing dying out, letter formatting, within the classroom.

Category 5

Informal Assessment - Going along with the idea of daily journals previously mentioned, I could go around asking students occasionally on what they are writing about, and why. Doing so would give me an insight into why they are writing what they are writing. This time could also be used to address any concerns they may have with really anything about the class. Again, I would use this assessment within the context of lessons by focusing the "freewriting" topics on particular subjects related to books we are reading, or topics we are covering. Beyond that, if I want to make it freewriting, I could make them use a particular grammatical rule I have introduced.

Formal Assessment - A simple formal assessment would see if a student can properly apply a grammar rule that has been presented, such as how commas are to be used in particular situations. I would use this assessment to make sure students have comprehended a particular grammatical rule.

*sorry about the lack of a vlog, Labor Day wasn't very conducive to that for me, I plan on one next time!*